World Winter Sports Expo 2020 held in Beijing

The World Winter Sports (Beijing) Expo 2020 (WWSE) kicked off in Beijing on September 5, bringing winter sports under the spotlight once again.

As a window for synergizing winter sports resources at home and abroad, the WWSE has achieved remarkable results in strengthening international exchanges and cooperation and driving the development of China's ice and snow industry since its inception in 2016.

With the theme of "The Power of Ice and Snow", the event invited many heavyweight Chinese and foreign guests to offer advice and suggestions on the development of China's winter sports and the world's ice and snow industry.

The 2020 WWSE was held as one of the thematic exhibitions at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) this year, which demonstrated the important role of ice and snow industry in modern global trade in services.

While highlighting internationalization, industrialization, and popularization, this year's WWSE aims to fully display the achievements of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics preparations and the development of the domestic winter sports.

In the core exhibition area of the event at the China National Convention Center, exhibitions featuring themes including preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, ice and snow sports-related scientific and technological achievements, as well as ice and snow equipment have attracted many visitors.

Besides, some new exhibition areas have been set up this year to show characteristics and local culture of the ice and snow industry in provinces and cities across China.

Since the COVID-19 has impacted on the sports industry worldwide, the smooth holding of the WWSE by China, which has overcome many difficulties for the event, is of great significance for exhibiting China's achievements and boosting connectivity in the world.

This year's WWSE came at an important time, said Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), at the WWSE opening ceremony and main forum.

"The World Winter Sports Expo is the perfect platform to highlight this important contribution of sport to the recovery. The Expo is also an important step as China gets ready to welcome the world's best winter sport athletes in 2022," Bach said via a video link.

Guests including Christophe Dubi, Olympic Games executive director at the IOC, and presidents of many international winter sports federations participated in discussions at the forums of the WWSE via video.

They spoke highly of the orderly preparations for the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and expressed confidence in future work.

Held both online and offline, this year's WWSE has established an even more open platform and provided an important opportunity for the mutual promotion and integration of China's ice and snow industry with that of the world.

More than 500 Chinese and foreign brands from more than 20 countries and regions showcased their products and services at the expo, with these products and services covering such areas as ice and snow sports-related scientific and technological achievements, tourism and industrial results.

This year's WWSE has specially set up exhibition areas for ice and snow sports-related scientific and technological achievements as well as hi-tech products used in Winter Olympics, aiming to highlight the role of scientific and technological innovation in facilitating the development of China's ice and snow industry as well as the preparations for the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

The application of science and technology in ice and snow sports has broken the limit to time and space in popularizing winter sports, and generated more possibilities for the development of ice and snow sports.

Austrian exhibitors have brought to the event many outdoor ski resort facilities, skiing equipment, ice-making devices and technologies.

The movable and foldable skiing simulator showcased by an Austrian exhibitor allows users to learn basic skiing skills through the equipment without having to go to the ski fields. Besides, the simulator could be very useful in skiing courses.

Synthetic ice rink, which once attracted great attention at previous WWSEs, has now become an ancillary facility for ice and snow classes in schools.

Thanks to the development of technology, natural ice rinks could be moved and put together this year. The natural ice rinks built by exhibitors at the expo has drawn the attention of many visitors.

With the help of science and technology, this year's WWSE has significantly increased the popularity of the event by offering innovative online platforms to people.

The power of science and technology has made the WWSE more colorful, and will also bring new opportunities to the ice and snow industry, noted Gao Yunchao, deputy general-secretary of the Beijing Olympic City Development Association.